Author Topic: Southern Ontario Rules  (Read 199 times)

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Offline Boges

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Southern Ontario Rules
« on: August 13, 2019, 11:33:49 am »
Says Macleans Magazine.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/best-place-to-live-1.5244158

Quote
I feel a bit bad about this because I know the rest of Canada thinks we think we're the centre of the universe, and this isn't really helping that impression.

There are a lot of advantages to living here. That's reflected in the rankings. Toronto really is the engine of the country, and that benefits the entire southern Ontario region. There are strong labour statistics here. Incomes are high. If weather is important to you, basically the two best picks in Canada are either somewhere in BC or in southern Ontario.

Ontario small towns also have the lowest crimes in the country, and Ontario has the lowest health care wait times. So all those factors combine to give southern Ontario towns and cities an advantage.

Toronto itself is nice to visit, but it seems the much maligned suburbs are the places you really want to live. If you can withstand the commute.

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Offline ?Impact

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2019, 12:11:10 pm »
Toronto itself is nice to visit, but it seems the much maligned suburbs are the places you really want to live.

Lots of very nice neighborhoods within the city of Toronto, although they might have been called suburbs 40 years ago. The real problems with Toronto are cost and commuting. Yes, like any major city it has trouble spots as well.

Offline Boges

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2019, 12:12:25 pm »
Lots of very nice neighborhoods within the city of Toronto, although they might have been called suburbs 40 years ago. The real problems with Toronto are cost and commuting. Yes, like any major city it has trouble spots as well.

The big problem with Toronto is that it's next to impossible to want to raise a family there.
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Offline Omni

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2019, 12:49:16 pm »
The big problem with Toronto is that it's next to impossible to want to raise a family there.

I grew up not far north of Toronto (Muskoka) and then when it became time to go to work I headed for "Hogtown". I felt like a cool big city dude and was lucky enough to find a place to live in "The Beaches" area which put me close to the Danforth. Strolling along there sampling all the different foods, languages, smells, drinks etc., was educational and fun. Work eventually moved me west but I still have family back in Ontario. Now that I am an old fart when I go back to visit I tend to just grab my bag and head for lake country ASAP. I'll leave TO to the young folks and go get in a canoe with a fishing rod.
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Offline Queefer Sutherland

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2019, 01:50:24 pm »
I've lived in the area.

Toronto is a great place if you have a business, there's tons of people there, all the good restaurants and venues are packed. If you can't run a successful business there you're terrible at business.  Other cities are like ghost towns in comparison.  You can get mega rich in that city, and many have.  Even if you don't have a business but you are very driven in your career there's tons of opportunity there to rise up the ladder.

If you have a more typical middle class job that you could have in most other cities you're basically a sucker to live there as the cost of living is ridiculous.

Besides the downtown core which has tons of interesting venues/restaurants, personally by Canadian standards I think the city is an overpopulated concrete jungle drug-infested polluted dystopian shithole with alarming income inequality and filled with too many fake plastic people worried about what fancy car they drive while having the biggest a-hole drivers in the country.  But that's just me.

I've also never met a Torontonian who didn't think every other city in the country was lame and boring.
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Offline Omni

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2019, 02:14:14 pm »
I've lived in the area.

Toronto is a great place if you have a business, there's tons of people there, all the good restaurants and venues are packed. If you can't run a successful business there you're terrible at business.  Other cities are like ghost towns in comparison.  You can get mega rich in that city, and many have.  Even if you don't have a business but you are very driven in your career there's tons of opportunity there to rise up the ladder.

If you have a more typical middle class job that you could have in most other cities you're basically a sucker to live there as the cost of living is ridiculous.

Besides the downtown core which has tons of interesting venues/restaurants, personally by Canadian standards I think the city is an overpopulated concrete jungle drug-infested polluted dystopian shithole with alarming income inequality and filled with too many fake plastic people worried about what fancy car they drive while having the biggest a-hole drivers in the country.  But that's just me.

I've also never met a Torontonian who didn't think every other city in the country was lame and boring.

It's usually a few years between my visits back there and I am always amazed on approach to YYZ how much the place has expanded since the last time. I recall reading about the AC DC8 that crashed just west of the airport many year ago which killed 109 which was the number of passengers on board when it hit a farmers field. If that happened today the death toll would likely be ten times that with the townhouses that would be hit.

Offline Boges

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2019, 02:36:21 pm »
I've lived in the area.

Toronto is a great place if you have a business, there's tons of people there, all the good restaurants and venues are packed. If you can't run a successful business there you're terrible at business.  Other cities are like ghost towns in comparison.  You can get mega rich in that city, and many have.  Even if you don't have a business but you are very driven in your career there's tons of opportunity there to rise up the ladder.

If you have a more typical middle class job that you could have in most other cities you're basically a sucker to live there as the cost of living is ridiculous.

Besides the downtown core which has tons of interesting venues/restaurants, personally by Canadian standards I think the city is an overpopulated concrete jungle drug-infested polluted dystopian shithole with alarming income inequality and filled with too many fake plastic people worried about what fancy car they drive while having the biggest a-hole drivers in the country.  But that's just me.

I've also never met a Torontonian who didn't think every other city in the country was lame and boring.

Kay, but we're talking about Toronto Suburbs.

Offline ?Impact

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2019, 06:26:44 pm »
I've also never met a Torontonian who didn't think every other city in the country was lame and boring.

You must be a youngster. The used to roll up the sidewalks in Toronto at dusk.

Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2019, 07:37:35 pm »

I've also never met a Torontonian who didn't think every other city in the country was lame and boring.

This seems like bullshit to me.  I haven't met a Torontonian who didn't say something extremely nice about another Canadian city.

Offline kimmy

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2019, 04:41:23 am »
I lived in Ottawa for a while and found the climate there to be extremely gross due to the humidity. I haven't spent much time in southern Ontario but I have a hunch that with the proximity to the Great Lakes the humidity isn't any better than in Ottawa.  I honestly preferred the climate in Edmonton to Ottawa.  And of course the climate here in Kim Country puts the rest of the country to shame, although the BC wildfires of the previous 2 summers have dampened my enthusiasm for it somewhat.

Toronto itself is a mess of smog and traffic, but other places in the area don't seem so bad. I was in Windsor and London about 10 years ago and quite enjoyed it.  I also liked Kingston.   But I wouldn't live in Toronto for basically the same reasons I'll never live in Vancouver.

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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Southern Ontario Rules
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2019, 05:50:29 am »
TBH I don't particularly like it here but Joan is partial to it.

We don't leave because:

- literally 1000 friends and family
- our careers are tied to this place
- opportunities for creative activities are unbounded